by Hadley Quinn
Finally he stopped and said, “Would you help me with something quick?”
“Of course,” she replied quickly.
“Or you can grab Tyse. Maybe he’d put up with my shitty mood right now.”
She barely cracked a smile and answered, “I’m sure he’d want to spend time with you, but I’d rather put up with your shitty mood right now instead.”
He studied her for a few seconds and then looked away to focus on the car. “Okay, well I’m gonna take this hood off. I’ll hold this end up if you can just remove those bolts the rest of the way with your fingers?”
She nodded and twisted the already loosened screws the rest of the way. It took a minute but she said, “Okay, got it,” as she put them in her pocket.
“Okay, so you’ll need to hold that side up so it doesn’t twist into the windshield or into the bodywork.”
“Okay,” she nodded. She watched him hold his side of the hood up while he unscrewed the two bolts in half the time it had taken her to do it.
“You got it?” he asked. When she nodded again, he said, “Okay, so we’re going to bring it down flat and walk it over there.” He motioned with his head to another workbench that was covered with a blanket, and when they walked it over, they set it down together.
“Piece of cake,” Melanie exhaled. “What’s next?”
Jay smiled, which was absolutely what she needed to see. God, how she loved his smile…
“That’s good enough, pretty girl. I got it from here.”
“I failed at the whole sexy mechanic model thing?” she teased. “I’m already fired,” she pretended to pout. “That makes two of us today. Not good, Jay.”
That time he laughed as he pulled the blankets away from the Mustang and tossed them onto the workbench. “I would never fire you. You’re the only beautiful thing in my life right now.”
To Melanie, that statement was almost soul-crushing yet pulse racing at the same time. Jay was already choosing several tools and then pulled the cover off of the engine that was propped on a stand next to the car, so she didn’t expect him to notice that her heart and soul were in conflict. But he finally looked at her again and paused.
“What’s up, buttercup?” he asked with a smirk.
She barely shrugged as she came across the garage to stand in front of him next to the car. She knew he was perceptive but had deliberately lightened the moment to avoid the seriousness of it.
Classic Jay McCallan move.
Melanie grabbed him by the shirt as she leaned back against the car. Jay was jerked toward her and put a hand on the Mustang right by her shoulder, but she pulled him closer. She could see him swallow briefly as they looked at each other from only six inches apart. Just having him this close to her almost made her lose her nerve. The boy did crazy things to her body and mind. But she didn’t want to regress. She had him, here right against her, and she couldn’t lose the momentum.
She slid her hand behind his neck and pulled his mouth closer.
Chapter Fourteen
You’re gonna ruin everything, you dumb fucker was all that kept repeating in Jay’s head. Kissing her was probably the stupidest thing he could do and he had about half a second to stop himself.
But of course he didn’t. He was a dumbass, after all. The last bit of hell had just come crashing down on him at Beck’s shop, and now all he wanted was to have something sweet to make it all better.
He looked from her lips to her eyes, which was a mistake. Her lips looked so damn kissable, but her eyes could fuck him over big time. And he could feel her fingers on the back of his neck, softly caressing his skin into his hair. And then the tingles it gave him were magnified by the ravenous look in her deep green eyes.
And that was it. She broke him down just like that.
His hand gripped the back of her head and he captured her lower lip between his to try it out slowly. But she made a little noise, like a whimper, that totally fucking undid him, and it was like a shitload of pent up sexual aggression for this woman just unloaded all at once. He was on her instantly, wrapping both of her legs around his waist so his erection was pressed between them. She kissed him harder and it spread the fire burning through him all the way up to his brain, ravaging any rational thoughts that might make him stop.
And the irony of it all?
I’m On Fire playing on the radio…
He was barely grazing her breasts with his hand as he continued to suck her tongue, but Melanie’s hands were up his shirt, tempting the fire to burn hotter. He was trying to be gentle with her, but just kissing her was undoing him piece by piece. He was still rubbing against her until it was obvious an orgasm was pulsing through her. God it was so fucking hot he wanted to rip her clothes off and screw her against the damn car. He was stupid enough to kiss her, so why not be stupid enough to have sex with her?
At some point he stopped kissing her, but even with the attempt to catch their breath, their lips were still touching. Jay had never been in such a lingering moment like he was now, waiting for something to either make or break him, and it was almost more intense than the night they’d fooled around. That time was entirely their physical needs being met; this time he had fucking let himself kiss her and a whole shitload more had stormed the walls.
“Jay?” Melanie whispered against his lips.
“Mmhmm?” was all he could respond, because she kissed him again, softly and slowly, and his mind was disappearing into a helpless heap of mind fuck.
“I want you to have lots of beautiful things in your life,” she spoke softly.
She wrapped her arms around his neck as she carefully unhitched her legs from around him, and when her feet were on the ground again, her hands slid down the front of him and remained against his chest.
Jay’s mind was slowly beginning to process her words but he was without an intellectual response. When all he answered was, “Okay,” he thought she’d roll her eyes or be annoyed with him.
But Melanie’s eyes were still pulling him in as they continued to stare at one another, and then she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips again and said, “Okay.” She gave him a hug—it was brief but purposeful—and then said, “I’ll let you get some work done.”
He watched her walk across the garage, and she even turned the music back up before she opened the door to exit. She glanced back once and gave him a smile, and then left.
“Oh my God,” Jay exhaled as he leaned against the car with both hands. He shook his head, as if it would clear his mind of what the hell just happened. He also needed a minute for his cock to chill the fuck out before he could go back to work.
***
Jay didn’t enter the house until almost eleven o’clock that night. After getting immersed in a project, it was always difficult for him to pull himself away. He was fucking starving, too. He hadn’t eaten since lunchtime and went straight to the kitchen to see what he could find.
“Melanie made you dinner,” Tyse said from behind him.
Jay had only turned on the light over the sink so he didn’t bother him in the other room, but Tyse flipped the other lights on and squinted. He was just in a pair of shorts and it was obvious he’d just woken up.
“She said you’d probably be out there for a while so it’s that red dish in the fridge.”
Jay opened the refrigerator and found it right away. As he pulled it out he said, “Sorry I woke you. Maybe we should get you a bed for the other room.” He put the dish on the counter and didn’t miss the surprise on Tyse’s face. “Well unless you really do want to move into the McCallan mansion,” Jay added. “I don’t really give a fuck. I just thought while you’re here, we might as well put at least an air mattress in the other room.”
“No, I don’t want to move into the mansion,” Tyse shook his head. “I don’t even know what my plans are.”
“Hmm. Join the club.” Jay removed the lid from the dish and paused when he saw what it was. With a sigh he barely shook his head at the food but grabbed
a plate anyway.
“What’s wrong with the food?” Tyse asked, obviously annoyed by Jay’s reaction to it. “She spent like an hour making it—”
“Chill the fuck out,” Jay retorted. “It’s none of your damn business, but it’s one of my favorites.”
Tyse didn’t reply to that as Jay dished some of the baked spaghetti onto the plate. If Melanie had been there she would have made him eat a salad with it, but he was so hungry he started eating it cold without heating it.
“Yeah it was pretty awesome,” Tyse finally said. “I’ve never had that before.” He turned to head back for the living room and then paused. “Oh, and she was pretty damn happy when she left here a few hours ago. I take it things went well out in the shop.”
Jay could hear the smirk on Tyse’s face before he even saw it. “Why, what’d she say?” he tried to ask casually as he stuffed his face with another bite.
“Nothing much, actually,” Tyse answered. “Just that you let her help take the hood off. I kind of assumed that was an innuendo, so I don’t wanna know.”
Jay couldn’t help but laugh, but shaking his head he replied, “Actually no, no double meaning on it. She did help with that.” He was going to add “and then some” but decided against it.
“Hmm, well I’m assuming it was more than that since she had finger smudges on her shirt right across her chest and I’m guessing it wasn’t her own.”
Jay watched him disappear around the corner without a word as he silently replayed his time with Melanie in his head.
Yep, he could definitely admit to having his dirty hands on her…
***
“I really appreciate this, man. You have no idea,” Jay said.
“You know I love working with you,” Teague answered. “No need to thank me. I’m just glad I have a chance to while Camryn’s in Fresno.”
Jay only nodded. Melanie had gone with Camryn too, and he was worried that her stupid fucker of an ex would try to see her. At least Camryn was with her, so it wasn’t like he had to worry about her physical safety. But it was just the idea of her being around that dickhead that got under Jay’s skin.
Now he and Teague were going to spend the entire day working on the Boss. Now that Jay didn’t have a job, he needed to get that baby up and running so he could sell it. He had bills to pay, and whether Beck wanted to speak to him or not, Jay was still going to pay him the two grand he owed him.
They got straight to work, getting things done without a single problem. But after two hours of working on the car, Tyse appeared in the shop, looking way out of place.
“Whoa, man. You’ll get your khakis ruined in here,” Jay laughed, looking him over.
Tyse smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I had a job interview. Two, actually.”
“And how’d it go?” Jay asked, caring for some reason. After hearing bits and pieces from his life, the guy actually seemed pretty interesting. And he wasn’t kidding when he’d told Jay that he had a lot of interests. From business to sports and music, Tyse was pretty well rounded.
“Went pretty well,” Tyse nodded. “I’m pretty sure I’ll get offered at least one of the two. One of them is more entry-level than what I was doing back home, but that’s expected. Seems like a good facility, regardless.”
“And is that the one that you think you’ll land?” Teague asked.
“Uh, not sure,” Tyse smiled with a shrug. “I have a good chance at the other one too. Anyways, you guys need some help? I can go change and do whatever you need. I’m probably not as brilliant as you guys, but it’s kinda funny that this interest runs in the family.”
Jay wasn’t surprised, but he was still about to decline.
But Teague answered, “You like mechanics, huh?”
“Yeah, I’ve worked on a few things here and there. Can I help?”
“Yeah, actually we got something you can do,” Teague said. “Go change.”
When Tyse left the garage, Jay gave his cousin an unhappy glare. “Three’s a crowd, buddy.”
“He can strip the paint, dumbass.”
Jay thought for a moment, and decided Teague had a point. Sanding the old paint off a car was his least favorite chore.
“Tyse can be the stripper,” Jay finally agreed with a nod, and they both laughed.
By six o’clock that night, Jay was one happy motherfucker. Having the extra help had been nice, and while Tyse took care of stripping down the Boss, Jay and Teague were able to take care of a shitload of other things that needed done before they could paint it and hoist the engine into it. Teague had offered to stay longer to hang the plastic up for painting in the morning, but Jay knew Camryn was already home and didn’t want to keep him.
Now he was alone with Tyse, who continued to offer his help. To Jay’s surprise, he actually didn’t mind his company. Tyse didn’t talk unless he needed to for the sake of the car, and he also didn’t have to be told twice how to do something.
It was ridiculous that he reminded him so much of his dad.
“So how long have you been working on cars?” Tyse asked out of the blue. “I’m pretty intrigued with what you do.”
Jay shrugged as he returned his tools one by one. “You obviously know more than you give yourself credit for. I guess it really does run in the family. But since I was fifteen. It was actually a hobby of my dad’s—eh, of our dad,” he corrected. “But he never let me work with him. When I was just a kid—five, six, seven years old—he had several cars that he’d kind of started to collect and work on. He had a ’68 Camaro, a ’71 El Camino, a ’70 Mach 1, a 1956 Chevy Pickup, and a few others over the years. That was actually my favorite—the truck. But...” He shrugged again as he put away his sanding equipment. “He always told me to stay away from his cars. When Dad was working on his cars, I knew to leave him alone.
“But when I turned twelve my parents got divorced,” he continued. “My mom got quite a bit in the settlement since my dad had cheated on her. You know who my mom is, right?”
Tyse slightly nodded. “Amelia Brennan, the actress.”
“Yep. She may have been a washed up actress already, but she had proof of my dad’s affair and pretty much nailed him to the wail. She got half of his cars, too, so when I was about fifteen that’s when I had access to them.”
“So you ended up living with your mom at that point?”
“Most of the time. We still went to my dad’s two weekends a month, but he turned into a drunken idiot even more so than he already had been. He said shit to me all the time, but the minute he laid into Kellie verbally, things got physical between him and me. It ended up like that every weekend we were there, so by the time I was a junior in high school, my mom had his weekends revoked. He didn’t even care.”
“So did you get along with your mom, then?”
“Uh, not exactly. With my mom it wasn’t peaceful either, just because she was constantly trying to push us into the McCallan spotlight. Since her career was failing, she wanted some sort of future in it for us too. She put Kellie into modeling and dance and all that shit, and Kell hated it. My mom ended up giving up on us, I guess,” Jay chuckled sarcastically. “She met someone and moved to Colorado after I graduated. Kellie lived with Grandpa until she turned eighteen, and then she moved in with Teague and me.”
“So you don’t talk to your parents at all?”
“I talk to my mom on the phone maybe once a month for two minutes. But she’s remarried now and rolling in wealth and her new life, so she hardly bothers. But my dad? Hell no. I tried connecting with him a couple of times and he’s just… I don’t know, he just wants to keep drinking his life away. I don’t understand it. His dad has paid for him to have the best rehab treatments there are and he just keeps turning his life into a giant shit mess.”
They both headed for the exit, and Jay shut the music off and flipped the lights. As they walked across the yard, Tyse said, “I called him before I left Arizona.”
Jay slowed as they stepped onto the
back porch. “You called my dad? Uh, your dad?”
“Yeah,” Tyse nodded.
“Hmm. And how did that go?” Jay asked as they entered the house.
“Well, let’s just say I’m not surprised because my mom already told me how he’d react,” Tyse lightly laughed. “He pretty much told me not to bother heading this way. He told me he didn’t have any money for me, but if I wanted to work my way into his father’s good graces, maybe he’d consider meeting up with me if I had something to compensate him for his time.”
“Oh my fucking hell!” Jay laughed out loud. “That is so classic! Yeah,” Jay nodded. “He’s used that on us, too. Jesus, he’s an asshole.”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Tyse nodded. “And no, before you ask, I didn’t come this way to work an angle with your grandfather. I just wanted to meet him. On the phone he was actually—”
“Hold up, you talked to Gramps on the phone too before you came this way?” Jay asked as they both stopped in the kitchen to eat.
Tyse leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “My mom did first. He actually knew about me, but agreed with my mom years ago to just let her live her own life. He told her to let him know if she would ever let him be a part of my life, but that he respected her decision. But yeah, he was the one that told me to come meet him whenever I was ready. But to be honest, I was more interested in meeting you and Kellie, so that’s where I started first.”
“Hmm, interesting,” was all Jay said as he started pulling out items to make sandwiches.
“You’re pissed, huh,” Tyse stated.
“Not at all,” Jay replied just as quickly. “Just not surprised, I guess. This family is so full of secrets and shit that nothing fazes me anymore. I just wish it could all stay with them and leave me the fuck alone. I want no part of anything complicated in my life.”
Tyse went to work making his own sandwich in silence, but just as Jay was about to head to his room with his food, Tyse said, “Just don’t write something off too quickly if it seems ‘complicated.’ Sometimes it’s really not. Or sometimes it’s just totally worth a sacrifice or two…”